▲“What sets you apart can feel like a burden, but it’s not. A lot of the time it’s what makes you great.”

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"Accept your lack of knowledge and use it as your asset.”

▲“When you do something that people respond to, and then you start altering the blueprint for what worked, it’s pretty fear-inducing. But sometimes, you have to do that, in order to push the boundaries.”

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“There is a kind of invisible thread between the actor and the audience, and when it’s there it’s stunning and there is nothing to match that.”

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“I think the crucial thing about being an actor is to be doing it.”

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“To grasp the full significance of life is the actor’s duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication.”

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“The thing I like about acting is being able to lose yourself completely in someone else. I’m not that comfortable when I get recognized.”

▲“I think you should take your job seriously, but not yourself. That is the best combination.”

▲"One of the things about acting is it allows you to live other people's lives without having to pay the price."

▲“As an actor you try to bring as much of yourself to a part to try and create a feeling of authenticity and emotional truth and resonance.”

▲“Acting is really about having the courage to fail in front of people.”

▲“Acting is a form of self-expression, it’s not becoming someone else, and it’s not playing make believe; it’s about using the fiction of being someone else to express something about yourself.”

▲“It’s tough, acting. You have to walk two lines of a tightrope. There’s the all consuming fear of failure… and there’s also confidence–you have to be confident to try new things... And they fight each other all the time.”

▲“Every movie I make I find kind of excruciating. I get a lot back from it, but I feel like I’m kind of always working at the edge of my ability. I guess that’s what I’m looking for when I go to work. I am trying to become the edge.”

▲“When you work on anything, you want to find the range of impulses. Which ones get portrayed is another question, but you want to have that complexity and that fullness, even if you’re playing a cartoon character.”

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“Flip it. Hit the stage and go; 'Keep up.' But you’ve got to do the work. You can’t do that without preparing the work. The great ones work that hard all the way to the end.”

▲“I’m sure acting is a deeply neurotic thing to do.”

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“The only way I can move past the absurdity of what I do, is to commit to the point of absurdity.”

▲“I feel like telling stories is a spiritual exercise and I think that it’s something that we need as a culture and as humans. You put your nightmares up there, you put your dreams up there and people can see them better because they can stand outside of it and recognize themselves inside it.”

▲“For me, our job as artists is to serve the story, serve the director, and serve the fellow actors. And if you do that, by osmosis you’re serving yourself because you’ll get the best out of yourself.”

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“Actors should not feel scared, about the fact that they’re scared. I think it’s a good sign.”

Sources: (StageMilk) (Backstage) (Notable Quotes)

▲“If any of the work, that any of us do, contributes to the stretching of culture, the stretching of boundaries of empathy that’s expected of an audience… that’s the holy grail.”

▲“If you’re an actor, even a successful one, you’re still waiting for the phone to ring.”

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“It’s important to say that the more challenging a scene is, in a way, the more fun it is because the more of my job I get to do.”

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"Acting is not about being someone different. It's finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there."

▲"I love acting because it's this space where dreams can be realized, fantasy comes to life, and there are no limitations on what's possible."

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"It's not whether you really cry. It's whether the audience thinks you are crying."

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"I've been planted here to be a vessel for acting... that's why I'm really taking any part, regardless of how complicated it's going to be."

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"If you get an impulse in a scene, no matter how wrong it seems, follow the impulse. It might be something and if it ain't... take two."

▲"The art of acting is not to act. Once you show them more, what you show them, in fact is bad acting."

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“Study, find all the good teachers and study with them, get involved in acting to act, not to be famous or for the money. Do plays. It’s not worth it if you are just in it for the money. You have to love it.”

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"It's what I learn from the great actors that I work with. Stillness. That's all and that's the hardest thing."

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Have you ever wondered what the world's most successful actors and actresses have to say about acting? If so, then you're in for a treat! From Hollywood legends such as Marlon Brando, to veteran stars like Meryl Streep, in this gallery you'll get to know a bit more about how these accomplished actors and actresses see their craft.

Whether you're a budding actor or a film lover, browse through and get inspired by these quotes on acting by famous movie stars.